arbuthnot
[Rushing across and catching hold of him.] No! no!
gerald
[Thrusting her back.] Don’t hold me, mother. Don’t hold me—I’ll kill him!
mrs. arbuthnot
Gerald!
gerald
Let me go, I say!
mrs. arbuthnot
Stop, Gerald, stop! He is your own father!
[Gerald clutches his mother’s hands and looks into her face. She sinks slowly on the ground in shame. Hester steals towards the door. Lord Illingworth frowns and bites his lip. After a time Gerald raises his mother up, puts his arm round her, and leads her from the room.]
Act-drop.
·119· Fourth Act.
·121· SCENE—Sitting-room at Mrs. Arbuthnot’s. Large open French window at back, looking on to garden. Doors R.C. and L.C.
[Gerald Arbuthnot writing at table.]
[Enter Alice R.C. followed by Lady Hunstanton and Mrs. Allonby.]
alice
Lady Hunstanton and Mrs. Allonby.
[Exit L.C.]
lady hunstanton
Good morning, Gerald.
gerald
[Rising.] Good morning, Lady Hunstanton. Good morning, Mrs. Allonby.
lady hunstanton
[Sitting down.] We came to inquire for your dear mother, Gerald. I hope she is better?
·122· gerald
My mother has not come down yet, Lady Hunstanton.
lady hunstanton
Ah, I am afraid the heat was too much for her last night. I think there must have been thunder in the air. Or perhaps it was the music. Music makes one feel so romantic—at least it always gets on one’s nerves.
mrs. allonby
It’s the same thing, now-a-days.
lady hunstanton
I am so glad I don’t know what you mean, dear. I am afraid you mean something wrong. Ah, I see you’re examining Mrs. Arbuthnot’s pretty room. Isn’t it nice and old-fashioned?
mrs. allonby
[Surveying the room through her lorgnette.] It looks quite the happy English home.
lady hunstanton
That’s just the word, dear; that just describes it. One feels your mother’s good influence in everything she has about her, Gerald.
mrs. allonby
Lord Illingworth says that all influence is bad, ·123· but that a good influence is the worst in the world.
lady hunstanton
When Lord Illingworth knows Mrs. Arbuthnot better, he will change his mind. I must certainly bring him here.
mrs. allonby
I should like to see Lord Illingworth in a happy English home.
lady hunstanton
It would do him a great deal of good, dear. Most women in London, now-a-days, seem to furnish their rooms with nothing but orchids, foreigners, and French novels. But here we have the room of a sweet saint. Fresh natural flowers, books that don’t shock one, pictures that one can look at without blushing.
mrs. allonby
But I like blushing.
lady hunstanton
Well, there is a good deal to be said for blushing, if one can do it at the proper moment. Poor dear Hunstanton used to tell me I didn’t blush nearly often enough. But then he was so very particular. He wouldn’t let me know any of his men friends, except those who were over seventy, ·124· like poor Lord Ashton: who afterwards, by the way, was brought into the Divorce Court. A most unfortunate case.
mrs. allonby
I delight in men over seventy. They always offer one the devotion of a lifetime. I think seventy an ideal age for a man.
lady hunstanton
She is quite incorrigible, Gerald, isn’t she? By-the-by, Gerald, I hope your dear mother will come and see me more often now. You and Lord Illingworth start almost immediately, don’t you?
gerald
I have given up my intention of being Lord Illingworth’s secretary.
lady hunstanton
Surely not, Gerald! It would be most unwise of you. What reason can you have?
gerald
I don’t think I should be suitable for the post.
mrs. allonby
I wish Lord Illingworth would ask me to be his secretary. But he says I am not serious enough.
·125· lady hunstanton
My dear, you really mustn’t talk like that in this house. Mrs. Arbuthnot doesn’t know anything about the wicked society in which we all live. She won’t go into it. She is far too good. I consider it was a great honour her coming to me last night. It gave quite an atmosphere of respectability to the party.
mrs. allonby
Ah, that must have been what you thought was thunder in the air.
lady hunstanton
My dear, how can you say that? There is no resemblance between the two things at all. But really, Gerald, what do you mean by not being suitable?
gerald
Lord Illingworth’s views of life and mine are too different.
lady hunstanton
But, my dear Gerald, at your age you shouldn’t have any views of life. They are quite out of place. You must be guided by others in this matter. Lord Illingworth has made you the most flattering offer, and travelling with him you would see the world—as much of it, at least, as one should
